Jeremy Wolfenden

Link to the BBC 4 show ‘Consenting Adults’⤵️

Nb. it shares a (terrible) name with two American TV movies, one from 1985 and the other from 1992, neither having anything to do with the history of sex or gay rights let alone with the Wolfenden report or with Jeremy.

He’d be in his eighties now, had he lived. One of you Elders must have known someone who fucked him.

What’s interesting is that, in spite of Jeremy’s legacy, reputation and his rather soft-boiled sheltered upbringing in the lap of relative luxury, in life he adamantly refused to play the effete scholarly posho fop, which would have been the easiest gimmick for him. Unlike the stereotypical homosexual white wealthy man of his age, Jeremy’s dream was to assume the role of a tough, well-travelled, aphoristic and hardbitten working reporter-cum-intelligence agent.

Reports from those who knew him all agree that he had no patience or liking for effeminates, and would deliberately swagger around as if he owned the place—nothing shrill or shrieky in his manner. He’d dress like a gangster on purpose, even bleaching and slicking his hair (not considered something that indicated latent tendencies, back then). He seemed more anxious to seem not-privileged and not-academic rather than not-straight, which is curious. He was a wild and crooked character, ultimately a tragician, but one who was fiercely anti-romantic—he was passionate only to oppose anything he saw as fascistic or altruistic, and to flout so-called natural laws. Jeremy could be cutting and cruel to his peers in a most casual way; his approach to life has been described as Orwellian and Lacanian. It would seem that the shadows of both World Wars swallowed his brief yet brilliant existence.

From Philip French, a friend of his at Oxford, written for the London Review of Books:

[quote] I knew him by reputation. There were people quite as clever as Jeremy, several of them his friends, but somehow word had got around that he was the most brilliant mind of his generation. I had also heard of, and been suitably impressed by, his vacation job on the Times, and had read a devastating ‘Oxford Letter’ he had done for Granta, then Isis’s opposite number in Cambridge, which seemed to have been written by a world-weary cynic acquainted with every social and intellectual stratum of the university and city rather than a freshman who’d been there for five weeks. I also knew him by appearance – the fair hair (its colour aided by bleach), the clip-on dark-glasses worn at all times, the cigarette in the corner of the mouth or held in the hand in such a way that the smoke would turn his fingers oak-brown, the felt hat, dark shirt and light tie, which gave him a gangsterish appearance, though more Guys and Dolls Runyonesque than High Sierra Bogartian. I knew, too, that he was queer (the term ‘gay’ wasn’t used then), though I can’t recall just how that information was conveyed to me. There was nothing of the pansy (a contemporary term he employed to describe a type he despised) about him.

[quote] One of Jeremy’s heroes was the war photographer Robert Capa, who had been blown up by a mine in Indochina in 1954 at the age of 41. The ideal life, we often joked, would have been to have spent the Twenties drinking with Fitzgerald and then been killed in Spain alongside John Cornford and Julian Bell. Jeremy fell immediately for James Dean on seeing East of Eden and Rebel without a Cause. A few years later he was even more passionately drawn to the Polish actor Zbigniew Cybulski, who like Jeremy wore dark glasses and walked around beneath a dazzling cloud of weltschmerz. Like many of his contemporaries Jeremy started to drink heavily during his National Service. His sexual promiscuity began at the same time – but to this he had a more cynical approach. He did not believe in romantic love and rather despised those who did, especially gays. I particularly recall two men associated with Isis who fell in love with him and, after those little flings Jeremy called ‘bunnymoons’, were cruelly rejected and excluded from his life.

Another fact I’ve discovered about him—one both charming and insufferable—is that he insisted his collegiate friends call him ‘Jay’, after the titular Gatsby in his favourite novel.

Jeremy was a great admirer of F. Scott Fitzgerald, which seem an odd affinity for a hotheaded scholarly young Englishman. I suppose THE GREAT GATSBY was a fairly new release at the time, and more impressive and interesting for it.

Biggerstaff?

This is an interesting post, OP, and I intend to watch the movie.

R6 well, glad to be of service in a signposting capacity! When you’ve seen it, come back and us know how you got on, won’t you?

It’s a rather slapdash and sketchy production, and quite dated now, but I have to say I still found it enjoyable and informative, as well as fairly true to the times and the characters it portrays. The action (what there is of it) moves at a good clip, everything hangs together well, the dialogue is crisp and to the point, and the ensemble cast are all absolutely in the pocket.

R5 indeed....😏Biggerstaff plays a very good Jeremy, though I must say I did want to see a bit more cool viciousness and keen acerbic wit? The actor really does seem intelligent and sensitive to the character, but there’s something a bit too gentle, forgiving, louche, and Radio 4-ish about the presentation of Jeremy here, as compared with accounts of the man from books. Think it’s because Sean is a sweetheart. Still a job well enough done, though. And his costuming is fantastic—I want every single one of his outfits in this!

And he wouldn't stand out from the crowd at all.

R8 the glasses were prescription, and the cigarettes a social standard. The neckscarves were all Jeremy, though.

I was thinking of doing a "Gems from Wolfenden" with illustrations, but only got partway through. I have a copy of the report which includes examples of perverse incidents, it would be in the tradition of Victorian extract publications like "Gems from Tennyson".

R10 oh? Sort of like a ‘Greatest Hits’?

But what would you even include? In his fleeting and few years alive, Jeremy didn’t complete much of anything substantial in the way of original fiction or art (he preferred drinking, fucking, and railing against the machine), and what exists of his philosophical writing remains under lock-and-key in a dark vault at Oxford. There is work he did for the S!S that may never see the light of day, either. Really, all we have by his hand that is accessible in the public domain are some of his articles and essays.

Sorry, R11, I meant his father's report, The Wolfenden Report.

The idea that he was murdered by the C!@ has now been debunked, but idk🤔

R10/R12 oh sorry, my mistake!

FWIW, your project sounds like it would have turned out to be really interesting and clever. How come you abandoned it?

How did Oxbridge of the 1930s view and tolerate homosexual affairs among their stiffened & staff? Really it must have been a hotbed for gay activity—but was it all out in the open on the quads and in the Colleges, or was there still an element of hush-hush?

^^^meant to type ‘students’ and not ‘stiffened’, of course. How embarrassing!

OP R14, I haven't quite abandoned it. I was thinking of calling it "Elegant Extracts, Gems from the Wolfenden Report".

Wonder if Jeremy enjoyed the then-licentious works of the more sexually-liberated and flexible French enfant writers of his day? The Genets, The Radiguets...he would have liked the explicit gay sex in their works, I’m sure.

He sneered at upper-class European Bohemianism, though, so perhaps not.